Situationism

7/21/2019 Situationism

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s I T U A T I O N I S M

What follows are examples of Situationist activity in the Bay Area, including a brief

interview with a member of the short-lived Point Blan k! group which in 1973 plastered

San Francisco with posters inquiring, "Did You Ever Feel Like Killing Your Boss?", etc,

bearing the Mayor's private phone number. Situationist materials are available from

Bound Together Book Collective, 1369 Haigh t, San Francisco CA 94117 (415-431 -8355 ), or

from Compendium, 234 Camden High St, London NW1 England (1-485 -8944 ).

VALE: Give us a little Situationist background —

X: Situationism began in the late fifties as a Surrealist- inspired attack on the mechanisms of alienated consumption

and the vulgar values of the Society of the Spectacle—which is the title of a work by a primary theoretician, the French

man Guy de Bord. The Situationists critiqued the idea of work, play, the media, all organization, all hierarchy, and the traditional Left, emphasizing spontaneous self-expression, sexual liberation, the necessity for creativity and the exalta

tion of imagination and desire.

May ’68 stands as the shining example of Situationist

theory put into practice, when almost the entire country of France was brought to its knees by mass strikes. The incen

diary significance of May ’68 and Situationism itself is virtu

ally unknown to most Americans, thanks to extremely sketchy U.S. press coverage. A couple of eyewitness journal

ists, Patrick Seale and Maureen McConville, described the feeling generated: "This very widespread revolt against the old forms of established authority was accompanied by an acute and profoundly enjoyable sense of liberation. All sorts of people felt it in all walks of life. A great gust of fresh air blew through dusty minds and offices and bureaucratic struc

tures.” (Seale and McConville, French Revolution 1968, Lon

don, Heinemann and Penguin, 1968)

Inspired by Situationism’s possibilities, in the early ’70s

there were five Situationist groups in Berkeley: Point-Blank!, Diversion, Negation, Contradiction, and the Bureau of Public Secrets—all competing! There were already "official”

bureaus of the International Situationist group in Amster

dam, London, New York, etc. Basically these other groups sprang up in opposition to this "officialdom”; this was at a time when the Paris group was factioning. Also, there was at

least a fifteen-year age difference between the original Situa

tionists and the Berkeley people, who were mostly undergraduates.

However, let’s stick to pranks and subversion—specifi

cally Situationist subversion. The following example involved the most logistical planning (mainly phone calls and printing), and was not only ambitious, but farfetched!

Because you can’t easily shut down a city...In 1973, thousands of the first three posters, Did you ever

fe el like killing your boss?, Did you ever fe el like stealing

everything? and Is there life a fter death? were plastered up all over San Francisco by four teams of two people each, starting around 10 PM and going almost til dawn. (A few days after the first three posters had been circulated, a fourth

poster, The End of San Francisco (or, how to play with its ruins) explaining our motives was plastered all over S.F.) All districts were covered, with emphasis on shopping cen

ters, downtown, the financial district, and ghetto areas. We used a special wheat paste which made the posters almost impossible to remove.

However, late that night my partner and I were caught. A

patrol car took us to the Ingleside Precinct Station where we were questioned for about two hours. Basically we said that we’d been wandering around that evening and someone had approached us, made us the offer, and then paid us x amount of dollars to do this job. We were simply earning a buck.

The police scrutinized the two posters they had, carefully checked the telephone number (which was the Mayor’s pri

vate line!) and the names, and determined they were all legitimate, [laughs] They said, "Well, these are the right names all right, and this is a correct telephone number”— they actually made calls to verify it! The gullibility factor in all this was astonishing—it’s amazing how one can exploit the conventional media just by re-deploying letterheads and logos. So anyway, they let us go.

What ultimately resulted was a flood of telephone calls to the Mayor’s Office at City Hall. Then there were articles in local papers exposing this "prank” which for its day wasn’t bad; it was certainly more sophisticated than any other leftist broadcast! We know for a fact that the Mayor was livid.

The whole point is: it’s simply a matter of using existing communication channels to one’s own advantage. One can perpetrate crimes by posing as a delivery man, etc—it’s just a matter of using the guise of the existing system and turning it upside down. Of course, this was largely a theoretical exer

cise—it doesn’t cause people to think (anymore than they already think) that they want to shoot their boss, or shoplift. This approach (using the guise of the existing system to sub

vert it from within) is now known to be a much more effective

means of subversion—witness the CIA’s de-stabilization of governments by using the already existing newspapers, elec

toral system, and everything to achieve their ends!



DO YOU EVER FEEL LIKE

KILLING YOUR BOSS?

i

If you have, you’re not alone. Today, it’sno secret tha t a lot of people aren’t happy attheir work. In fact, there is a growing discon-tent among workers of all types, in offices,factories a nd public institu tions —regardlessof age or paybracket, they no longer believe

in their jobs. In San Francisco (and, indeed,all over the country), the institution of work,which has long been a cornerstone of our so-cial structure, has lost its value. Dissatis-faction with the work ethic has been ex-

pressed in var ious ways, from a g eneral lackof morale, to outrigh t acts of sabotage, theftand wildcat strikes. All of this poses a ser-ious threat to the successful functioning ofour economy. Statistics indicate that the

productiv ity level of the American worker isone of the lowest in the world.

As proprietors of San Francisco busi-nesses, leaders of organized labor, andgovernment officials, we are intimately con-cerned with this state of affairs. Since we are

pa rtne rs in the economy who hav e a mutua l

interest in the continued operation of our so-ciety, we feel that an immediate solution tothis problem must be found. At present,these acts occur on an individual or locallevel, but they could easily develop into ageneral revolt against our economic system.Therefore, as a part of a national effort, weare starting a campaign designed to restore

people’s confidence in their job s. This cam - paign will beg in with a conte st, “BEL IEVEIN WORK.”

Workers of San Francisco: we are awarethat you are often bored and frustrated inyour work situation. But we are confidentthat you are not disenchanted with our so-ciety as a whole because of this. We are al-ready implementing programs t ha t will make

your job more meaningful to yoii by involv-ing you more actively in the decisionmaking process. All of th is will no t chan ge your p osi-tion in society but it will bring your workcloser to you. While you may be unhappywith your present conditions of employment,we know that underneath it all, you still be-lieve in work itself and the system of author-ity that lies behind it.

It may appear to you tha t your work bearslittle relation to wh at you really want to do,and that it mainly consists of producing,selling or servicing items which have no

apparent value in themselves. This may betrue; nevertheless, work keeps people occu-

pied and gives them a goal in life. Besides,this is the w ay it is all over the world, even inthe socalled “socialist” countries. Work hashelped everyone live much the same way.

The labor of the American worker has pro-vided all of us with the standard of living weenjoy today. It enables us to buy all thethings which are considered necessary to livea happy, fulfilling life. People may objecttha t in the act of shopping they are only buy-ing back what they and their fellow workershave produced. However, this argument ig-nores the fact that work by its very naturehas to be this way; if we want society to con-tinue, we must all be prepared to make cer-tain sacrifices and a job is one of them.

Work may be unpleasant, then, but it isabsolutely essential. If people wanted to getrid of it, they would have to change everything and create a completely different kindof world. But let’s be realistic—nobody has

to go that far. We are convinced that theaverage American worker respects his super-iors and is basically satisfied with his life. Asa way of showing our appreciation, our BE-LIEVE IN WORK contest will include a $20cash incentive for all those who wish to

pa rticip ate in it. Ea ch co nt es tant will receivea free button, pictured below, and the indi-vidual who best fits our definition of a goodworker will be awarded a $1000 prize. Ourgenerosity should not be too surprisingafter all, money is the only thing we can evergive you anyway.

WORKING TOGETHERa committee of concerned San Franciscans

JOHN F. CROWLEY

SecretaryTreasurer, San Francisco Labor CouncilWILLIAM E. DAUERExecutive Vice President,Greater San FranciscoChamber of Commerce

J O S E P H A L IO T O

M ayor , San F ranc isco

(cochairmen)

For further information, telephone 5583456.



DO YOU EVER FEEL

LIKE STEALING

EVERYTHING?IH-u l/( i J*,// /

? * llt>>-5! — ..‘J

h r - V

No t only do mos t people fee l this way,they’re actually refusing to p ay for consumergoods, and instead are taking them illegally.Many large San Francisco stores have suf-fered tremendous financial losses because ofthe shoplifting that has taken place in thelast five years. As the owners of San Fran-cisco businesses, we are the people who haveto bear the cost of all this. We are thereforetaking this opportunity to express our con-cern and bring this problem out into theopen. Moreover, we feel that this seemingly pe tty crime has im po rtan t consequences forsociety as a whole.

Surprisingly, this type of crime is not lim-ited to individuals who can’t afford expensive

items—all kinds of people steal, even thosewho have the money to spend. Our own em-

ployees, for example, are responsible for alarge proportion of theft—we can’t eventrust them any more. In fact, many peopleconsider shoplifting to be a game, a way ofstriking back at a uthority. This sort of activ-ity is far more disturbing than any kind ofconsumer boycott, because it threatens thevery basis of our economy. We appreciategood consumers who want to keep pricesdown, but we cannot tolerate criminals.

All of this indicates that people are notsimply dissatisfied with the rising cost of liv-ing, bu t with the way they live in society. Ina sense, we can even understand this senti-ment. Apparently, shoppers feel insulted by

being forced to bu y back what the y have al-ready produced as workers. Shopping, how-ever, is as necessary as work. American so-ciety needs its consumers. People may feelsometimes that in our economy, things aremore important than they are, but, after all,we do give you a choice of what you can buy.Those people who think shopping is boringare the same people who are bored with theirw or k in fact, they’re probably bored witheverything our system has to offer. Butshopping is not necessarily a dull obligation;it can be an exciting experience, a useful wayto spend your leisure time. Many people,especially housewives, do a lot of shoppingand find it rewarding.

We are confident tha t m ost of you are bas -ically honest and have nothing to do with thetheft that has occurred. Right now, shop-lifting is largely an individual act and is no tthat difficult to deal with. However, the con-temp t for authority th at people display whenthey steal could easily become widespread. I fthese people and our employees startedacting together, we could be faced withserious revolt against the foundations of oursociety—work and shopping. The kind of

people who don’t pay are capable of an y-thing, including the notion that they couldrun society by themselves without any needfor people to give them orders.

Shoplifting, then, is not just an attack on

bus iness, bu t an at ta ck on our whole way oflife. We can stop this kind of crime by hiringmore guards to protect our property, b ut thiswould only trea t one aspect of a much gre ater

problem. To arrive a t a gen uine solu tion , wemust restore people’s faith in shopping andin society. As a contribution to this, we areholding an I LIKE SHOPPING contestwhich everyone is eligible to join. All thosewho participate will receive a free I LIKESHOPPING button, pictured below, as wellas a $20 cash incentive. The individual whocan best tell us, in 100 words or less, why heor she likes to shop, will be a warded a $1000

prize. Since you give us so mu ch of yourhardearned money every day, we can easilyafford to give you a little of it back.

FAIR TRADEa committee of concerned San Franciscans

ROBERT APPLEBYGeneral Store Manager, Macy’s

C. A. HAINE

General Manager, EmporiumShopping Centers

JOSEPH ALIOTOMayor, San Francisco

(cochairmen)

For further information,

telephone 5583456.



THE END OF SAN FRANCISCO

v

(or, how to play with its ruins)A city is nothing more than the sum of its con

straints. Its walls are at the same time the bar-riers to our lives and our desires. Eve ry d ay, weact out a routine within its streets and buildings,but despite all our activity, nothing ever reallyhappens. Our work, our shopping, our education,are just so much boredom, and we already know

it. Our misery finds its concentrated expressionin the city, and we can never really escape it.The whole show is controlled by the same peoplewho order us around during the day—the bossesand bureaucrats who benefit from the way thingsare organized. But it is our habits as much asanything else that keep us where we are—wehave been led to believe that everything's alwaysgoing to be the way it is, and there's nothing wecan do about it. However, beneath the surfacethere exists a hidden discontent which is onlywaiting for the right moment to express itself.

Yesterday, we published three posters, eachdealing with an aspect of this daily life, a dailylife which appears mysterious even though itsactions are repeated so often. We attackedsimultaneously work (Do You Ever Feel Like Killing Your Boss?), shopping (Do You Ever Want to Steal Everything?), and welfare (Is There Life Before Death?). We also distributed aphony "su rviva l coupon" throughout the city. Bypresenting each poster as an official documentwritten and signed by various civic leaders, weattempted to call these institutions by their truenames, cutting through the lies that surroundthem to reveal what people actually go throughevery day. We parodied bureaucratic languagein order to expose the matters such languagedeliberately conceals. At the same time, wedistributed a pamphlet (Space Travel) to com-muters and bus riders, which used the same for-mat to communicate the real purpose of travel ina direct and personal way. We pointed out thatthe circulation of people, like everything else insociety, is determined by the circulation ofthings.

In carrying out these actions, we did not intendto pull off some kind of elaborate prac tical joke.Our aims were far more serious: we wanted topresent our ideas in such a way as to make itimpossible for anybody to ignore what we did,including the authorities. We used the entire cityas a base for subversion, attacking work, shop-ping, welfare, and travel as important examplesof how we all spend our time, not as isolated

‘ "problem s." Our lives are largely determinedby these categories, and in communicating our

disgust with the existing world, we made it clearthat anything we did could only be a startingpoint towards the development of largesca le a c-tion again st society as a whole. In a time whensideshows like the "Watergate scandal" com-mand public attention, the real scandal of howwe live has been constantly suppressed, and it is

precisely this reality that our actions tried toexpose.

Our goals are as radical as our methods; forus, revolution means nothing less than the trans-formation of everything. Unlike those whomerely want to exchange one set of leaders foranother, who talk of socialism and the "van-guard party" in the same breath, we want to livewithout bosses. We do not seek to impose our-selves at the head of any movement or to manip-ulate it for our own ends. If the present order ofthings is to be eliminated, the majority of peoplewill have to assert their domination over the urban environment that presently controls them.To make the world truly ours—to talk to otherpeople about the things we have always wantedto talk about—we must begin to create our ownfree space in the city, constructing it as a realextension of our desires. This space, however,

cannot be restricted to one area; it can only becreated throughout all of society in the process ofradical struggle. The destruction of capitalismand the class that maintains it must be accom-panied by the establishment of our own power,demo cratic workers' counc ils where all of us canparticipate in running our lives without outsideinterference. Selfmanagement in a society wehave organized ourselves is the common projectthat yesterday's actions have tried to indicate.

The end of San Francisco as a place of isolationand separation, then, will only come about whenpeople abolish these conditions through theirown actions. What we have accomplished maybe small in comparison with what remains to bedone, but from now on, things cannot continue asbefore. Sooner or later, people will have to pur-sue their dissatisfaction to its final conclusion.The spontaneous, individual revolts against

authority which occur every day throughout thecity, in offices, factories, and schools, must be-come generalized if they are to pose a genuinethreat to capitalist society. The defenders of theexisting order, from the tired old bureaucrats inCity Hall to all the young reformers who want to"make the system work," can expect the worst.The future will belong to those who have nopresent.

POINT-BLANK!

p.o. box 42548 san francisco, CA 94142

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